She Immediately Tendered Him
The Check With The Request That He Would Inform Her To What The Interest
Amounted.
"Why, Molly," said Ben Taylor, "you surely ought to know me
well enough to know I would never take
Any interest on that money!" When
it is remembered that the legal rate of interest at that time was ten
per cent, and that double that amount was not infrequently paid - Mr.
Maslin, in fact, expecting to pay Taylor something like five hundred
dollars - the attitude of the latter will be the better appreciated.
This seems a fitting place to pay a humble personal tribute of respect
to the memory of the men of "the fall of '49 and the spring of '50." Not
since the Crusades, when the best blood of Europe was spilt in defense
of the Holy Sepulchre, has the world seen a finer body of men than the
Argonauts of California. True, the quest of the "Golden Fleece" was the
prime motive, but sheer love of adventure for adventure's sake played a
most important part. Later on, the turbulent element arrived. It was due
to the rectitude, inherent sense of justice and courage of the pioneers
that they were held in check and, by force of arms when necessary, made
to understand the white man's code of honor.
So much in song and story has been said of the scramble for gold in
the early days after the discovery, and so little attention given to the
artistic and aesthetic sense of the pioneers, that the general
impression made by the famous old mining towns of California, when seen
for the first time, may be worth recording.
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